We are constantly looking at new ways we can reduce our carbon emissions and work at solving traffic issues across the United States. Freight transport is becoming a big part of the solution. By trusting more shipping to freight, we can free up motorways and improve the efficiency of vehicles. Rather than using truck based logistics, we can use more freight trains for efficiency in fuel use as well as the option to one day use entirely electric transportation to transport goods.
Rail freight currently moves 40% of the consumer goods throughout the United States. Only 8% of the carbon emissions in the United States are caused by rail freight however. By changing more supply lines over to a freight system, we could be saving more than 1000 gallons of fuel per car load of freight on a yearly average. This could represent a massive savings in carbon emissions, fuel economy and more.
Freight rail is newer and cleaner than other shipping options. Using the latest locomotive technology in electrical rail as well as compressed natural gas leads to even greater efficiency improvements. By using trucks for shorter distances and trusting freight to trains for longer distances, this can work at improving shipping costs and making sure that we save our environment.
Transferring freight via trains is also very safe. Freight transportation is responsible for over 100,000 injuries each year and only a small portion of these fall in the rail industry. Carrying goods by rail is safer, more efficient and safer for drivers too.
If you are interested in learning more about rail freight and the future of this technology, contact us today.
This post was written by Justin Tidd, Director at Swartz Engineering. For nearly a half a century, Swartz Engineering has been at the forefront of industry safety. They are a family-owned company specializing in power distribution for the electrical industry. They are the leading manufacturer of Watt Transducers. The SWARTZ® Current Transducer is a high performance, solid-state unit specifically developed to meet requirements for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCA- DA) systems.
